Winter Masquerade
by Spunky0ne
Summary: Byakuya reluctantly accepts an invitation to attend a winter solstice masquerade...but what happens when he arrives is truly magical! Yaoi, Aizen/Byakuya...yaoi, mpreg


**Winter Masquerade**

**By Spunky0ne**

**(A tasty little Aizen/Byakuya oneshot. Enjoy!)**

"C'mon, Taichou, this is really going to be some fun! You'll see. Wait until we get inside. You're going to enjoy this."

Byakuya glanced at Renji's lovely, elaborately decorated mask and wondered how the man expected not to be recognized. Even if not for covering his dark tattoos, Renji was extremely tall and his red hair showed, so, the noble thought, he would be painfully obvious.

"I don't know, Abarai," he said shifting uncomfortably and slowing as they approached the old Victorian mansion where the solstice gathering was being held, "This isn't the kind of thing I usually do. The people here will mostly be your age, not mine. And the other taichous won't be there, ne?"

"Who knows?" Renji chuckled, "That's what makes it fun. You never know who will show up and turn things upside down. Thing is, you need to get out and have some fun. And I won our last sparring match, fair and square. You promised you would do this!"

"Well, I haven't backed out," the noble said, smoothing the white feathers on the lovely, intricate mask he wore and studying his suit to make sure it wasn't too obvious, "A promise is a promise. So...what do we do now?"

"We go inside," Renji said, leading him forward, where they were greeted at the door by a young woman in a pretty peacock mask.

"Welcome," she said, her mouth smiling where the mask revealed it.

She handed them each a dark red rose.

"Here are your roses. The ballroom and banquet are straight ahead and there are bedrooms upstairs for if you get..._weary_."

"If we get weary?" Byakuya whispered to the redhead.

Renji smirked.

"Well, it is an all night party and some people get tired...or they find someone they like and want to..."

"You can stop right there," the noble said dryly, "I get the point. I don't know why you thought I would enjoy something like this. I am not as young as you and not interested in what amounts to a fraternity party, Renji."

"Ah, relax, Taichou. Just go in and dance with people and have some good food then. The mansion is really something inside. They go to a lot of work to dress it up for this."

"But if it is such a big party, then why have I not heard of it?"

"Well, it's that way because secrecy adds to the fun. No invitations go out and everyone who comes is welcome."

"That is insane!" mused Byakuya, pausing as they entered the house and he was immediately stunned by the surreal environment.

"It's amazing, ne?" Renji sighed, enjoying the lovely pastel colors of the flowers, walls and furniture, as well as the heavy fog that drifted all around.

"I have to admit, it is beautiful. But Renji..."

"Come on, Taichou," the redhead laughed, taking his hand and leading him forward.

They worked their way through crowds of masked revelers, leaving Byakuya wondering just how many people were there and how many he knew. He tried to guess who some of the beautifully disguised people were, but the haze around them helped to obscure what he might have been able to pick out.

"Renji?"

He realized suddenly that the redhead had left his side and had disappeared into the crowd.

_I should kill him for this. What do I do now?_

He made his way to the banquet area and found an array of delicious foods that had been fastidiously prepared.

_So, a wealthy clan must have prepared all of this. I wonder which one..._

He didn't plan to eat much, but found he was extremely hungry after a long day at work, so he filled a plate and found a cozy place in a corner, where he could watch the people around him. He began to pick out things about them that seemed familiar, but was stymied again from actually recognizing anyone.

"Do you mind if I join you?" asked a deep, tranquil male voice.

It sounded familiar, but he couldn't seem to place it. Byakuya blinked in confusion. He wasn't one to sit and chat with a stranger he knew nothing about, but between the low, compelling voice, the man's attractive mingled black and gold demon costume, and the entrancing scent about him, he found himself unable to refuse.

"Of course," he said, keeping his voice soft, so as not to give his identity away.

He was surprised all over again as the man extended a hand and offered him a dark red rose.

"Wh-what is this?" the noble asked.

"Did you not know?" the man asked, smiling at him, "The rose you were given at the door is for offering to someone you would like to pair with for the evening. If you accept a rose, you cut off the stem and pin it to the front of your costume so that others know you are 'taken.' It means that for the duration of the party, we are dates."

"Well, not to be rude, but what makes you think I want to be 'taken' by you? I don't even know you."

"Perhaps not. But, you are obviously not one who likes a lot of _that kind_ of attention, ne? I am much the same. This will keep others from offering you their roses right and left all night."

"And what makes you think that anyone here would do that?" Byakuya asked, shaking his head.

"You are the loveliest person here," the man stated matter-of-factly, "Of course you will be surrounded all night by people wanting to be your date for the solstice."

Byakuya sighed, vowing even greater retribution on his absent fukutaichou.

"What a bother..."

"Yes, I know. I see you must have been coaxed into coming here by a friend. I love the decor and the food is wonderful, but that element is rather annoying, ne?"

"Yes."

"So, we can protect each other from having too many suitors?"

Byakuya considered the offer for a moment.

"You do not expect I will...adjourn to the upstairs with you?"

The other man smiled.

"If you do not wish it, then we will not go there. We can simply enjoy the party, the food and dancing. Do you like to dance?"

"Yes," Byakuya replied, accepting the man's rose and offering his own.

He pinned the rose to his costume and watched as the other man did the same. The man moved his chair closer to Byakuya's so that they could observe the other revelers together.

"So," the man said casually, "how did you come to be here tonight?"

My fu...erm..._friend_ asked me to go," Byakuya explained, "I would not have accepted, except he won our sparring match and I had agreed to go if he did."

"Ah."

"And yourself?"

"I am searching for someone."

Byakuya frowned.

"You are _searching_ for someone? At a masquerade? Why would you do that?"

The man smiled and his brown eyes twinkled.

"People hide behind masks far more intricate than these," he explained, "In fact, it is when they wear these costumes that they relax and reveal their true selves."

Byakuya studied the other people in the banquet room and the ones dancing in the next room. And amazingly, as he watched them more closely, they did begin to reveal themselves.

"Each person who comes here is looking for something. But sometimes they cannot see it until the mask on the other person is covered and the true nature of them is allowed to emerge."

Byakuya considered the connotations of that.

"So, you are saying that the costumes we wear cause us to feel comfortable being who we are inside?"

"Yes. Some people don't spend as much time hiding as others, so the change is not as great. But the one I am seeking is very different underneath than he is on the surface."

"But you have already given me your rose and I have given you mine..."

"Yes."

"Does that mean that you think that I could be this person you are looking for?" the noble asked.

"Perhaps," the other man answered, taking his hand, "Come now, would you like to dance?"

Byakuya had always loved to dance. He had been required to learn ballroom dance because he was heir, but he really hadn't minded. There was something freeing about placing himself in another person's arms and floating about so lightly on his feet. He accepted his date's hand wordlessly, following flawlessly as he was swept onto the dance floor to join the others swaying and stepping gracefully around the room.

"You dance beautifully," the other man observed, pulling him closer, "But do not feel you have to be confined."

The music changed to a tune that was slower and blended with the cloudy feel of the room to make the scene feel almost magical. Anchored in his mysterious date's arms, Byakuya quickly forgot the concerns he had felt before and began to truly enjoy the party.

_There are no expectations for me to behave a certain way. I am free to move as I see fit...to act as I feel. This is...heavenly._

And his partner was tall and charming. He was warm and accepting, even affectionate in the way he held the noble as they danced. The expressions around his eyes and mouth where the mask revealed him were as enchanting as the rest of him. And he seemed a gentleman...not putting the slightest pressure on him to go upstairs to engage in physical pleasures.

_Although..._

Byakuya stopped dancing, his eyes widening as he felt a twinge of lust for the man pass through him.

_But I don't even know who he is! How could I be wanting him that way? That is scandalous._

"Are you all right?" his date asked.

"I am...fine, but...but I need to go."

He started to pull free of the man, but was paused by a staying hand on his.

"Please do not go," the man said calmly, "After all, it isn't until midnight that our roses will reveal who we are and we can see who we have chosen."

"I think this was a mistake," Byakuya said, pulling free again and backing away.

The man disappeared suddenly, then his arm wrapped gently around the surprised noble's waist from behind and his breath tickled Byakuya's blushing ear as he spoke.

"Are you afraid?"

"Why would you ask me that?"

"Because you are trembling. Something has made you afraid."

"I simply realized that I was becoming too relaxed and perhaps had too much sake at dinner. I must go now."

He removed the rose from his costume and offered it back.

"Oh, it is too late to change partners now," the man said, looking disappointed, "And this would mean I had no partner for the midnight reveal."

"But I truly cannot stay!" Byakuya insisted.

"Why is that?"

"I...!"

The man studied Byakuya for several long moments, then smiled in understanding.

"I see," he said solemnly, "You are not worried about what might happen here. You are afraid of what it would mean when you wake up tomorrow."

Byakuya stared back at him wordlessly.

"Just dance with me then. There is no scandal in that, ne?"

Byakuya found himself being swept off his feet again. He meant to object but couldn't as he was taken in by the lovely music and sweetly possessed by the man holding him. But every step, every time he caught a breath of the man's scent, every time he smiled. with each proper, gentle touch, the noble found himself longing more and more poignantly that it didn't have to be for only one night, that he could meet someone like this while unmasked and escape his loneliness forever.

His feet stopped again, and he looked up into the other man's curious eyes.

"You are lonely too," he said softly.

"You see that now?" his date answered, slipping a hand under his chin.

"Yes."

"We cannot escape that loneliness in the light of day. The masks that the people around us wear make us uneasy about trusting. We are weary of searching for someone to ease our loneliness and we came tonight to find respite from that."

"Yes," Byakuya agreed, his heart pounding fiercely in his chest.

"So...you will be with me tonight?"

"And leave before midnight. We will not look on each other unmasked, but will see each others' names revealed by the opened rose," the noble offered.

He was met with a beautifully wicked smile.

"Very well," his date said, extending a welcoming hand.

Byakuya accepted the man's hand and followed him up the fog enshrouded stairs, where they accepted a key from a masked woman and entered the room she indicated. They passed through the door and closed it behind them, then turned to face each other in the darkness.

One of the man's warm hands curved around Byakuya's cheek that blushed beneath his mask, and as they met for their first kiss, the noble felt the ice that had been wrapped around his heart since his wife's death begin to melt.

_Hisana was a shy, gentle person. She accepted my touches but she hardly dared touch me. And I couldn't ask her for what I wanted..._

But the man in front of him needed no direction. His mouth met Byakuya's roughly and his hands roamed freely over the noble's body as they shared a barrage of hungry, wet kisses. The man didn't just kiss, he devoured, and his hands didn't simply explore, they possessed him. Byakuya closed his eyes and sank deeply into those hard, passionate kisses, wondering if he would ever feel such kisses again.

The man's lips left his and attacked his throat, plundering the fine, sweet flesh and tasting their way along a fine, sculpted collarbone. Byakuya didn't quite know when they had climbed onto the bed, or when their hands had begun to tear their clothes away. Within moments, they knelt, facing each other, wearing only their intricate masks, and wanton smiles filled with unsated lust.

Byakuya's head bowed and he sought the other man's throat, licking and kissing his way downward and brushing his lips teasingly against a dusky, erect nipple. He smiled at the growl the other man emitted, as his fingers curled into Byakuya's silken hair and his exerted gentle pressure to urge him on. The man laid back, leaving himself fully exposed as the noble kissed his way down over muscular breast, along each rib, then over the soft belly. He paused, looking down at the man's nether region and witnessing the strong reaction his ministrations had caused.

_I don't know if I can..._

The other man's fingers moved in his hair, coaxing him. Byakuya breathed in the warm, masculine scent of him and felt his worries disappear. He placed his hands on the man's parted thighs and lowered himself between them, keeping his eyes fixed on his date's face to watch his expressions as he was pleasured. And it wasn't just the expressions he made as Byakuya's mouth treasured his sensitive areas, it was the lovely, erotic sounds he made.

_Hisana was nearly silent, and she hardly dared to meet my eyes when I was with her..._

But this man met his eyes readily and reached out to caress his face. He moaned and thrashed as his pleasure mounted, then finally surged upward and turned the tables on the noble.

Byakuya fell back, his hair splaying out around his head and his body unresisting. He sighed as though in relief as the other man's hands and mouth roamed everywhere, touching him in ways he had always longed to be touched, and pleasuring him shamelessly. He blushed at the sounds he was making now, and he shivered slightly at how the other man drank the sounds in, and the look in his eyes grew darker and more wanton. There wasn't an inch of his skin that escaped his date's notice, and by the time he raised himself and began to prepare Byakuya for their joining, the noble was blushing all over.

"Arigatou," he said, offering the other man a very soft kiss of gratitude and receiving a look of deep affection in return, "I have never been made love to like this."

"That is a shame," the brown-eyed man said warmly, "This lovely body should shake with pleasure every night. These arms should never be empty. And you should never be hollow inside, but should always be filled as you will be tonight!"

Byakuya gave a hard cry of surrender as the man's hips moved and their bodies merged forcefully. And all he could be aware of after that was how happy, warm and full he felt while one with that other person. Their bodies writhed heedlessly together and their moans and gasps of contentment filled the room.

Byakuya looked deeply into the other man's eyes, only gratitude and affection showing as he surrendered to heavy shudders of pleasure and his insides were scorched with the other man's passionate release.

He laid quietly after, wondering if that once would be the only time, then having that worry swept away as the man on top of him came awake once more and they began to kiss again.

The hours disappeared into endless, furious joinings, their sweat dampened bodies dancing ceaselessly against each other, then quaking as they climaxed. Byakuya was nearly exhausted as midnight approached, but he remembered their agreement, and as the minutes counted down, he slipped out of the other man's arms and slowly dressed.

He fled then, running through the throng of dancers and out the front door and not stopping until he reached the sixth division office.

_I cannot go home and have my attendant become aware of how I spent the evening. Torio is trustworthy, but I cannot bear to have anyone know what I've done. No. I must let this go. One time, for one night, I knew pleasure like I have not known and will never know again. I was loved passionately and loved someone else with equal abandon. And anyway, he didn't want himself to be revealed in public either. So..._

He considered showering, but with his heart aching slightly, decided instead to spend the last hours of the night still smelling that other man's scent and feeling the dampness between his thighs to remind him that it was all real.

He was so tired, in the end, that he fell asleep and was blissfully unaware when the rose he had taken from his costume and left on his nightstand opened. When his eyes opened again, he turned his head and felt shock flood his so recently sated body.

"Aizen Sousuke?" he whispered, blinking in shock at the thought of the dangerous rogue taichou whom everyone had thought was in Hueco Mundo, "I suppose Renji was right about not knowing who might attend," he mused softly.

He left his bed and showered slowly, feeling again those possessive hands the way they had felt while exploring his body, and finding himself torn.

_I wonder who he was really searching for..._

He knew better than to admit to anyone what had happened. Instead, he resolved to say nothing to Renji when he went out to the office to start his day. When he walked into the office, the redhead was already hard at work.

"Good morning, Taichou," he greeted the noble, "I didn't know you stayed here after work last night."

"I was weary after the party and this was closer," Byakuya said, taking his seat and wincing slightly at the residual pain in his nether region.

Renji frowned and looked up at him.

"Party?" Renji repeated, "You went to a party, Taichou?"

"You don't remember?" Byakuya asked, frowning.

"Are you feeling all right, Taichou?" the redhead mused.

"I am fine," the noble said shortly.

He turned back into the hallway and returned to his room, where he searched the nightstand for the rose, but found that it was gone.

"What in kami's name? Did I dream it all?" he whispered.

He slipped out of the building and followed the path he had taken with Renji before, only to find that it led to an empty lot.

"What?"

He sighed in frustration and turned away, saddened that the beauty he had felt had been all in his imagination. He walked slowly away, unaware of the brown eyes that watched from the illusion shrouded mansion.

"Goodbye, Byakuya," Aizen said affectionately, "I will see you next year..."


End file.
